BROWN it is!

It's really been upsetting to discover that the faith I had in the USPS was for naught. I did refund the gal in Canada for the Pink Prada shoes. Luckily she has been very nice and understanding. Disappointed that she did not receive the shoes, but at least she knows that they were sent out and that I upheld my end of the deal. I refunded her the money yesterday and for me - it's just a total loss. Discovering that I have absolutely no recourse is very upsetting. EVEN MORE UPSETTING because of the more expensive item that was sent out via USPS GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL on January 9th to France! This sweater has not been received either and I will have to refund her next week. Our communication hasn't been as easy since my French is nil and her English is luckily better than my French but still not great. She also seems very nice and understanding - but again that doesn't help me!

It is interesting after ALL of the many many items that I have sent out of the country that both items lost were within weeks of one another. What could have happened? Up until I now I guess I have just been lucky.

This has been an expensive lesson for me. I will not ship anything else via USPS Global Priority out of the country - BROWN wins! At least they have a tracking system that is reliable and they do not suggest that they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for the item at all. I just don't understand how the USPS can just tell you something like that - we are not responsible to track the item and we are not responsible if it doesn't get there. Does this make sense?

Go fight City Hall! There is really no one to complain to - no one who can try to make this right. My sweet postmaster looked into it for me - but once he saw that letter from BETTY - he kind of washed his hands of it too. I feel for him, really - he is just about alone in our little post office. He has to sort the mail (I think on occasion he has a little helper) for the whole town - take care of anyone who comes to the window and answer the dumbest questions.

I find it very fascinating that people go up to the window when they have a package to mail and sometimes it is not even packed. They practically expect the postmaster to tell them how to do it from start to finish. Their labels are not made out and he stands there and patiently helps these people. And then of course, while he is helping them, someone else is complaining that their mail is not in their boxes yet. Well, of course! He's so busy answering dumb questions that he can't get the mail sorted. I'd like to see someone pull a stunt like that at the post office in New York City - they probably would be booted right out of the door!

Where do they find people who are actually willing to be subjected to this?
So how can I expect him to give my problem any of his attention? He's busy studying for some postal exam during his lunch break (yes, that is right - our post office closes at lunch time) and then has to come back after that to deal with all of these people again for the rest of the day.

The people in this town were terribly spoiled for over 25 years by having WALTER as their postmaster - he made his own rules and spoiled everyone. After he retired everyone was up in arms when the postmaster in charge now followed all of the postal rules - ie - not handing them their mail individually. Now there are new postal boxes with keys instead of the lovely old ones with the combinations. Time marches on.......we even have garbage bins now - before you had to take all of your junk mail home - now we get to leave it at the post office. So I guess you take the good with the bad.

I'm stuck with the bad - two lost parcels and a loss of $$$$.

I will ship all of my out of the country items through BROWN and hope it will be better for me. I learned the hard way.